John Travolta’s former director Barry Sonnenfeld gets candid about his working experience with the actor in his new memoir.
Elaborating on how John was obsessed with fame more than his acting, Barry wrote, “I have never worked with anyone who loved being a movie star as much as John Travolta.”
Get Shorty director claimed in his book, Best Possible Place, Worst Possible Time, “I am not saying he didn’t also love acting,” however, he “truly loved the fame and glamour and all the things that Gene Hackman hated”.
Reflecting on working with the actor on the 1995 movie, Barry recalled, “John is charming and not self-aware. He arrived on set with no sense that he had kept everyone waiting,” via Daily Mail.
Barry opened up that Gene had issues dealing with John’s “diva tendencies”.
The director mentioned one incident in his book when the Grease actor asked Gene about his weekend and he replied, “Well, with eight pages of dialogue, I pretty much spent the whole weekend memorising today’s work.”
Barry remembered John’s response as he said, “That’s a waste of a weekend.”
“When they started filming, his lack of preparations was immediately obvious,” remarked the movie-maker.
While comparing Gene and John, Barry stated, “Gene was a professional, memorising his lines before showing up on the set. He was off-book knowing every line of dialogue.”
“John, on the other hand, probably hadn’t read the script since his agent made his very lucrative deal. Fumbling his lines, or forgetting them entirely, I could tell John had no idea how angry Gene was getting. I knew we were in for a very, very long day,” explained the director.
Barry added, “Playing a scene requires both actors to know their lines… Unfortunately, while Gene spent his weekend learning his, who knows what John was doing.”
